(#087)
Assalamoalaikum
If a couple is unable to have children can they practice IVF?
Answer
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته
حامدا و مصليا و مسلما
We have received your question wherein you queried the Shar’ie status and ruling on artificial insemination. Our response follows:-
One of the fundamental principles of Islamic Jurisprudence is that one should avoid imposing upon one’s physical body actions that are usually considered to be unnatural and unconventional UNLESS there is a real dire necessity for doing so. For instance, the human body is accustomed to acquiring its food and drink orally through the gullet; but there are times when, due to certain ailments, food cannot be given to a patient orally. In such cases, the patient is then fed intravenously. Oral feeding is the conventional method whereas the intravenous one will be considered to be the unconventional one. But because man cannot usually survive without food and drink, Shari’ah (Islamic Law) will permit the intravenous method due to the dire necessity of the situation.
In the case where there is no such necessity, Shari’ah would NOT recommend the usage of unconventional methods of infusing objects into the body. That brings us to your question regarding artificial insemination. As all the modern methods of artificial insemination (GIFT, IVF, IVI and ICSI) are NOT conventional methods of inducing fertilization and, at the same time, these are NOT procedures upon which one’s life depends (hence the absence of a dire necessity); as such, opting for these procedures would be against the principles of Shari’ah.
If a husband, personally artificially extracted eggs from his wife’s ovaries and then mixed them with his own sperm before injecting them into his wife’s fallopian tubes, OR if the husband himself implanted embryos into her uterus (as in the IVI and ICSI methods) then, provided that the husband does not acquire the sperm through masturbation (which is prohibited), but rather by collecting it in a condom during intercourse or into a container using the coitus interruptus method or in some other way such as by way of extracting it with injection from the testicles; then although these methods would NOT be Haraam, they would still be discouraged and regarded as undesirable and abominable due to them being unnatural and unconventional methods of inducing fertilization.
However, in the case where one has these procedures carried out by a doctor (which will be the likely scenario), there would be many aggravating factors that would render such procedures totally prohibited in Shar’iah:-
First of all, one will probably be required to extract sperm by way of masturbation. As masturbation is a sin and prohibited in Shari’ah, one will NOT be permitted to remove the sperm in this manner.
Secondly, even if one can provide one’s sperm without having to resort to masturbation, then too there is the stigma of the husband or wife or perhaps both being required to expose the “satar” (those parts of the body that one HAS to conceal from strangers) to the doctor. One is only allowed to expose one’s “satar” to a doctor when there is a life or death situation or in cases of extreme necessity neither of which exists here, as the desire of having children is NOT an extreme necessity without which one cannot survive.
Thirdly, there is no guarantee that ONLY the husband’s sperm will be used for the procedure. If the husband ends up being treated by some money-hungry unscrupulous doctor, and the husband’s sperm is still found unsuitable (even after exhausting all avenues), then there is the likelihood that, in order to earn his money, the doctor could use someone else’s sperm from the sperm bank to inject into your wife, which would obviously be HARAAM, as it is only the husband’s sperm that can legally enter a woman’s uterus. These factors would thus render artificial insemination to be totally prohibited.
Hadhrat Mufti Mahmood Hasan Saheb rahmatullahi alaih has also strongly condemned these unnatural and artificial insemination procedures, as can be noted from his Fataawaa [Ref: Fataawaa Mahmudiyya, Vol. 5, Pg. 151 & 162; also Vol.12, Pg. 345].
This process was used previously in animals, whereby they used high quality semen to acquire a high quality animal. Once Mufti Mahmood Saheb rahimahullah was asked regarding this process for humans, he answered: “To make a woman like a mare, using this process to acquire children, can never be permissible. One must carry on trying for alternative treatments (apart from IVF , etc) and make dua.”
[See: Fataawa Mahmoodiyyah vol. 5 pg: 162 & vol. 12 pg: 345, Fataawa Rahimiyyah vol. 6 pg: 281, Ahsanul Fataawa vol. 8 pg: 215, Jadeed Fiqhi Masail pg: 152]
Our advice is that one should rather consult a Hakeem for treatment as Hakeem-medicines have been found to be beneficial for these types of problems. One should keep making Du’aa to Allah Ta’aala for a solution and accept whatever Allah Ta’aala has decreed and destined for one. If acquiring children has not been destined for one, no amount of treatment (whether it be in the form of artificial insemination or Hakeem medicines or whatever) is going to make any difference. Of course, one must at least try to do something, but in doing something, one should opt for procedures that are not considered reprehensible and detestable in the eyes of Shari’ah.
(Darul Uloom Azaadville Archives)
AND ALLAAH TA’LAA KNOWS BEST
Muhammed Irshad Motara
6th Ramadhan 1434
14th July 2013
Checked and approved by
Mufty Musayyab Sahib
(Mufti) Musayyab Sahib
7th Shabaan 1434
17th June 2013
